This morning we started out again with a light workout on the beach. The entire team was gathered and divided into two vans and each went to complete their missions.

Check out the map . . . Sistema Camilo

Well, it’s time to load up the van and leave beautiful Villas DeRosa yet again. Before the dive team left, we were each presented a card signed by all of the Fuquaites. They asked us to sign the t-shirts they had made for the expedition. We took farewell photos together and hugged each other goodbye. It was a sad day as the dive team departed. The Fuqua folks had one more day to themselves before they leave on Sunday. We’re sure they did morning PT and hiked around in the hot sun all day carrying tanks and trying to help anyone and everyone they could find!

March 26, 2004, is the last day that the Fuqua School team will be assisting the Cambrian Foundation divers. Tomorrow the divers leave to go back to their different homes. Today the Fuqua team and the Cambrian Foundation went snorkeling in No Hoch Na Chich. This is an underwater cave. The Fuqua students were amazed by the sites that they saw. The water in the cave was crystal clear. The speleothems were absolutely fantastic, pure white walls and tiny little fish everywhere. After spending about a total of three hours at No Hoch, the Cambrian Foundation and the Fuqua students went to Casa Cenote, which is a little restaurant, looking over a white sand beach and turquoise water. There the students enjoyed different types of delicious foods. After eating, the Cambrian Foundation and the students went to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins.

We…love…PT! It all began again at 0630 this morning. Terrence had us running down the beach in a line passing a coconut to each other. We looked quite humorous to the people watching us from their balconies! We left in two groups around 0930 and drove to our respective destinations.

Jumping jacks, sit ups, dive bomber push ups, quad stretches, and walking lunges got us warmed up for the day. Several people took turns leading the exercises so there was a lot of variety. After nourishment and loading the vans, we all headed to Cenote Muchachos. The first van loaded up and went to Aktun Chen to continue the dry cave survey. The second van stopped off at Aktun Chen to pick up Bob who was doing an interview with Lorenzo. While we waited for Bob, we played with a spider monkey, a Coati Mundi, and looked at snakes behind glass. After gathering Bob, we drove away to the site. Once there we divided up into four teams.

Our day began at 0630 with about 45 minutes of PT. Artie led the group in some light exercises followed by a refreshing swim in the ocean. Once everyone was sufficiently stretched and warmed up, we ate breakfast, gathered our required items for the day and headed off to our destinations to accomplish our missions.

Today started at 0630 on the beach with creative calisthenics and stretching. We had fun while getting physically prepared for our day. We departed Villas DeRosa at 0920 and headed for Cenote Muchachos. We arrived at Don Raphael’s house with 19 people in two vans! We presented Don Raphael with one of the expedition t-shirts. He seemed very pleased and told us he had the shirt we gave him last year. He was very gracious as he met the whole team. He communicated to the students to be looking for animals near the cenotes, including monkeys!

We got another late start today this time due to minor mechanical problems with the van. We departed at 10:30am for Cenote Muchachos once again. Terrence refrained from diving today to await arrival of the Fuqua students and the remaining Cambrian team participants.

We began our day waiting for cylinders to be topped up to complete our nitrox fills from the previous evening. Nitrox — enriched air nitrox to be more specific — is a tool we use to allow for increased available no stop dive time. This can provide the team with two to three times the available dive time compared to diving air. Enriched air nitrox is a mixture of more oxygen than normally found in air. Today the dive team used EAN 36. That is, 36 percent oxygen and 64 percent nitrogen.